System and Interface Preferences: server_pref.exe
The server_pref.exe utility is used to manage server-wide settings. Using this utility, one can perform the following operations:
- Set up default Plesk control panel interface preferences, such as locale, skin and interface template.
- Retrieve lists of available locales, skins and interface templates.
- Set up host name for the Plesk server.
- Set up server-wide preferences for traffic and disk space usage statistic.
- Set up server-wide database preferences.
- Allow/prohibit users to create DNS subzones in other users' DNS zones.
- Include customer password in files which keep WebMatrix publication settings.
Location
%plesk_cli%
Usage
server_pref.exe <command> [
<option_1> [<param>]
[<option_2> [<param>]]
... [<option_N> [<param>]]
Example
The following command sets the Plesk server host name to host.example.com, enables inclusion of mailboxes in the disk space usage calculation, and enables inclusion of only outbound traffic in the traffic calculation.
server_pref.exe --update -hostname host.example.com -include-mailboxes true -traffic-direction out
Commands
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Sets default server-wide parameters. Requires |
To set Plesk default locale to English (United States) and default skin to Aqua Compact: server_pref.exe --set-default -locale en-US -skin "Aqua Compact" or server_pref.exe -sd -locale en-US -skin "Aqua Compact" |
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Displays the list of available supported interface languages (locales). |
To view the list of available interface languages (locales): server_pref.exe --locales-list |
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Displays the list of available Plesk control panel skins. |
To view the list of available skins: server_pref.exe --skins-list |
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Displays the list of available interface customization templates. |
To view the list of available interface customization templates: server_pref.exe --templates-list |
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Updates Plesk server preferences. The corresponding options are in the list of options below. |
To set the host name to host.example.com:
server_pref.exe --update -hostname host.example.com |
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Displays the currently configured server preferences. |
To see the currently configured server preferences: server_pref.exe -s |
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Set up the CPU usage settings of the default shared IIS application pool. Used with the options: |
To set up the following CPU usage settings for the default shared IIS application pool:
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Loads default Plesk settings from Plesk Partner Central and saves them to When you have several Plesk servers, it may be convenient to customize Plesk setting once through Partner Central and then download the settings to each Plesk server. |
To load customization settings from Plesk Partner Central: server_pref.exe --load-customizations |
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Displays help on the use of the utility. |
server_pref.exe --help or server_pref.exe -h |
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Sets port or port range for passive FTP mode connections. |
To set port 50000 for passive FTP connections: server_pref.exe |
Options
| Option | Parameter | Description | Example | |
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Sets the default interface language for Plesk interface. The argument of the option must be a valid four-letter language code derived from the language code described in ISO-639-2 and the corresponding country code described in ISO-3166. For example, the Plesk code for the Italian language code is Used with the |
To set the default interface language for Plesk administrator's interface to Italian: server_pref.exe -sd -locale it-IT |
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Sets the default interface skin for Plesk interface. Used with the |
To set the skin WinXP Olivegreen as the default skin: server_pref.exe -sd -skin "WinXP Olivegreen" |
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Sets the default interface customization template to Plesk interface. Used with the |
To apply customization template Interface Customization Template to administrator's control panel interface: server_pref.exe -sd -template "Interface customization template" |
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Sets the full host name of the server. |
To set the host name to host.example.com: server_pref.exe -u -hostname host.example.com |
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Enables/Disables including log files in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including log files in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-logs true |
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Enables/Disables including disk space allocated to MySQL databases in the disk space usage calculation. |
To count MySQL databases disk space in the overall statistics: server_pref.exe -u -include-mysql-databases true |
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Enables/Disables including disk space allocated to Microsoft SQL databases in the disk space usage calculation. |
To count Microsoft SQL databases disk space in the overall statistics: server_pref.exe -u -include-mssql-databases true |
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Enables/Disables including remote MySQL databases in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including remote MySQL databases in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-remote-databases true |
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Enables/Disables including mailboxes in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including mailboxes in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-mailboxes true |
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Enables/Disables including Tomcat Java web applications in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including web applications in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-webapps true |
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Enables/Disables including mailing lists in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including mailing lists in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-maillists true |
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Enables/Disables including domain backup files in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including domain backup files in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-domaindumps true |
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Enables/Disables including backup files created by the Administrator in the disk space usage calculation. |
To enable including backup files created by the Administrator in the disk space usage calculation: server_pref.exe -u -include-admindumps true |
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Limits the number of months to retain traffic statistics. Is |
To retain traffic statistics for 6 months: server_pref.exe -u -stat-keep 6 |
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Specifies a type of calculating traffic. The following types are available:
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To include only outbound traffic in the traffic calculation: server_pref.exe -u -traffic-direction out |
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Enables/Disables adding database owner login name (customer or reseller) to database names as prefix Is |
To enable creating databases with names <customer|reseller login>_<database name>: server_pref.exe -u -force-db-prefix true |
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Enables/Disables adding database owner login name (customer or reseller) to database user names as prefix Is |
To enable creating database users with names <customer|reseller login>_<database user name>: server_pref.exe -u -force-db-user-prefix true |
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Enables or Disables on SNI support, which allows using individual SSL certificates on websites with the same IP address. |
To enable the SNI support: server_pref.exe -u -sni true |
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Limits the number of characters in database user name. |
To limit database user name to 25 characters: server_pref.exe -u -db-user-length 25 |
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Allows/Prohibits having several simultaneous sessions under administrator's login. Deprecated, use |
To allow multiple sessions under administrator's login: server_pref.exe -u -multiple-sessions true |
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Enables/Disables running scheduled backup processes with low priority. |
To enable running scheduled backup processes with low priority: server_pref.exe -u -low-priority true |
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Disables/Enables backup files compression. |
To disable backup files compression: server_pref.exe -u -do-not-compress true |
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Limits the maximum number of simultaneously running scheduled backup processes. |
To restrict the maximum number of simultaneously running scheduled backup processes to 5: server_pref.exe -u -max-backup-processes 5 |
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Allows local hosting of databases for web applications that do not support remote databases. |
To allow local hosting of databases for web applications that do not support remote databases: server_pref.exe -u -allow-siteapp-local-db |
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Specifies URL of the APS Catalog service. |
To make Plesk work with APS Catalog accessible by the URL http://apscatalog.com: server_pref.exe -u -aps-catalog-url http://apscatalog.com |
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Turns on force automatic updates for all installed applications. Users will be unable to turn off the updates. |
To set force updates for all installed applications: server_pref.exe -u -aps-force-updates true |
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Turns on automatic updates for all newly installed applications. If Users will be able to turn the updates off unless the force updates are turned on by the Administrator. |
To set automatic updates turned off by default for newly installed applications: server_pref.exe -u -aps-suggest-updates false |
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Configures the IIS Application pool assignment and placement policy. |
To configure the IIS Application pool assignment and placement policy to shared. server_pref.exe -u |
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Sets the maximum number of worker processes permitted to service requests for IIS application pool. |
To set the maximum number of worker processes permitted to service requests for IIS application pool to 5: server_pref.exe -u |
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Sets the amount of time a worker process will remain idle before it shuts down. |
To set the amount of time a worker process will remain idle before it shuts down to 5 minutes: server_pref.exe -u |
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Configures ASP.NET to run in classic mode as an ISAPI extension or in integrated mode where managed code is integrated into the request-processing pipeline. |
To configure ASP.NET to run in classic mode: server_pref.exe -u |
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Disables/Enables users to create DNS subzones in other users' DNS superzones. Is |
To prohibit users from creating DNS subzones in other user's DNS superzones: server_pref.exe -u -forbid-create-dns-subzone true |
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Hides from Control Panel all controls related to managing e-mail services and adding new mail accounts. This option does not actually switch off the Plesk-managed mail server, but only removes the following items from the Control Panel accessed by hosting service customers and their users:
Users tab > user name > Create an e-mail address under your account option. |
To hide from Control Panel all mail-related controls: server_pref.exe -u -disable-mail-ui true |
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Switches IIS application pool CPU usage monitoring on or off. |
To set up CPU usage settings for the default shared IIS application pool: server_pref.exe --set-iis-app-pool-settings -cpu-usage-state true -cpu-usage-value 10 -cpu-usage-action KillW3wp -cpu-usage-interval 3 -recycling-by-time 60 -recycling-by-requests 1000 -recycling-by-virtual-memory 5120 -recycling-by-private-memory 10240
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Specifies the maximum percentage of CPU time that worker processes in an application pool are allowed to consume over a period of time (the If the limit is exceeded, the event is written to the event log and an optional set of events can be triggered. These optional events are determined by the |
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Specifies the action that IIS takes when a worker process exceeds the limit on CPU time usage.
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Specifies the reset interval for monitoring of CPU usage by worker processes. Is not used for |
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The period of time after which IIS application pool recycles. |
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The maximum number of requests IIS application pool can process before it recycles. |
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The maximum amount of virtual memory a worker process can consume before causing the IIS application pool to recycle. |
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The maximum amount of private memory a worker process can consume before causing the IIS application pool to recycle. |
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Sets the domain name for the site preview function. Your customers can preview their websites during domain name propagation. For this purpose, the Plesk DNS server registers customer websites as subdomains of the domain you specify. Do not specify a |
Sets the domain name example.com for the site preview function: server_pref.exe -u -preview-domain example.com |
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Turns on/off password protection for website preview. In turned on, a user will have to provide the system user credentials to preview a website created on the server. |
To turn on the password protection for website preview:
server_pref.exe -u -preview-protection true |
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Allows subdomains to have their own DNS zones. Learn more in the Administrator's Guide > DNS. |
To turn on the support for the subdomain zones: server_pref.exe -u -subdomain-dns-zone own |
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Allows to exclude customer passwords from website-specific files that keep WebMatrix publication settings. The default value is false. Learn more in the Administrator's Guide > Server Settings. |
To include the password into the settings files: server_pref.exe -u -webdeploy-include-password true |
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If true, Plesk automatically downloads and installs updates. |
To turn on automatic updates for Plesk: server_pref.exe -u -autoupdates true |
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Sets automatic installation of updates for third-party Plesk components such as MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, mail servers, antivirus and other software. |
To forbid automatic installation of updates for third-party components: server_pref.exe -u -autoupdates-third-party false |
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Turns on the notifications about available upgrades. When an upgrade to a next Plesk version with a specified release tier becomes available, Plesk will notify you at the Home page. |
To turn on the notifications about testing releases: server_pref.exe -u -release-tier testing |
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Enables or Disables automatically upgrading Plesk to the latest late-adopter release version once it becomes available. |
To turn on automatic upgrading to the latest late-adopter release: server_pref.exe -u -autoupgrade-stable true |
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Sets the minimum password strength for all user passwords in Plesk. Users are forced to adjust their new passwords according to these requirements. |
To set the weak level of the password strength for user passwords: server_pref.exe -u -min_password_strength Weak |
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Forbids customers to change the user name of the system user associated with their subscription. |
To forbid customers to change the system user name: server_pref.exe -u -forbid-ftp-user-rename true |
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Forbids customers to change the name of the main domain in their subscriptions. By default, the main domain's name is the same as the subscription's name. Note that Plesk administrators can modify subscription names even if this option is By default, for example, after Plesk upgrading or on new Plesk installations, this option is |
To forbid all customers to change the name of the main domain on their subscriptions: server_pref.exe -u -forbid-subscription-rename true |
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Grants the ALTER DATABASE permission to all Microsoft SQL Server database users or revokes it from them. |
To grant the ALTER DATABASE permission to all Microsoft SQL Server database users: server_pref.exe -u |
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Enables or disables the db_backupoperator role membership for all Microsoft SQL Server database users. |
To enable the db_backupoperator role membership for all Microsoft SQL Server database users: server_pref.exe -u |
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Switches off automatic upgrade of Plesk extensions. |
To switch off automatic upgrade of Plesk extensions: server_pref.exe -u |
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Sets up FTPS to protect communication between the FTP server and external FTP clients using SSL and TLS protocols. To allow only secure FTPS connections, use To allow both FTP and FTPS, use |
To allow only secure FTPS connections: server_pref.exe -u -ftp-over-ssl required |
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Sets the URL that opens when clicking the Support button. |
To set the URL opening at the press of the Support button to http://example.com: server_pref.exe -u |
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Allows or forbids the use of Plesk server as an FTP storage for Plesk backups. If users configure backups for their Plesk accounts to go to their own FTP directories on the same Plesk server, the amount of used disk space will double upon creation of each backup. This can eventually run the server out of free disk space. To prevent this, we recommend that you use this option so as not to allow the use of Plesk server as an FTP storage for Plesk backups. |
To prevent users from configuring Plesk so as to save backups to FTP directories on the same server: server_pref.exe -u -allow-local-ftp-backup false |
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Sets the maximum number of backup files to store. |
To limit the number of backups users are allowed to have to 5: server_pref.exe -u -max-backup-files 5 |
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Allows or forbids keeping backup in the local storage if upload to FTP failed. |
To allow storing backups in the local storage if upload to FTP fails: server_pref.exe -u |
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